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52
become an advocate of the constant service system, and
agree with Captain Tyler, that "second only to improved
dwellings, a legislative enactment carrying out such a
provision would be the greatest blessing that could be
bestowed upon the working classes and the poor of London."
It is scarcely necessary to state that all the cow houses
in the Sub-district, as well as all the places used for the
slaughtering of cattle, sheep, and pigs, received the usual
attention, and were reported on so favourably as to secure
the renewal of the licence in every instance.
Once more referring to the subject of over-crowding
amongst the poor, it may be remarked that there appears
more necessity than ever for the adoption, throughout the
entire District, of some means of lessening the many evils,
moral and social, that are known to arise from the deficient
house accommodation for the families of the labouring portion
of the population. During the last five or six years a very
large number of houses have been erected within the
boundaries of this parish, but looking at the great outlay
that must have been made in the construction and ornamentation
of the majority of them, there is little hope of the
builders of such bestowing much attention upon the supply
of habitations for the necessitous poor. A class of house
especially adapted to the wants and to the means of labouring
men and their families, who are at present much too promiscuously
crowded together, is the great desideratum, but it is
one, it is submitted, that could be readily met by a combination
of the more wealthy residents in forming a society
for the accomplishment of this great and most pressing
object. It is true, that as a speculation, that which is here
suggested might not prove so immediately profitable as many
other investments, but it should never be forgotten that it
has over and over again been shown, as an eminent writer
has very forcibly expressed it, "that nothing is so costly,
in all ways, as disease, and that nothing is so remunerative
as the outlay which augments health, and in doing so,
augments the amount and value of the work done."
R. HARLAND WI11TEMAN,
Medical Officer of Health for Putney and Roehamjiton-